We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.

Afflictions are... if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ

An 'impersonal God'-well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads-better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap-best of all. But God himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, King, husband-that is quite another matter.

Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery. But it can be used the wrong way round. It can be used for a kind of blackmailing. Those who choose misery can hold joy up to ransom, by pity.

A promise must be about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling a certain way.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

Every joy is beyond all others.